Today’s Answer
From the
National Survey: A Planning & Assessment Coordinator from a Technical
College asks: “What is the one best
question to ask of all students?”
Bending the rules a bit here, but since
the respondent did not specify this question to be fixed choice or open-ended,
I’ll suggest one of each, both “best” for different purposes:
1. "Would you recommend this instructor to your
friends or colleagues?” (Alternately: “Would you recommend this COURSE to
your friends or colleagues?”)
I prefer a 4-point forced choice scale (Definitely
Yes, Probably Yes, Probably No, Definitely No) but could also use the 11-point
Net Promoter Score format. If the
latter, be sure to preserve the actual numeric responses so can have a mean
rating in addition to the usual 3 categories (promoters, detractors,
passives). The mean rating will provide
much richer information.
2. "What
is the one question you did not get the opportunity to ask of your instructor?”
This question never fails to yield interesting material. We use it on the “one minute survey”, which
is given multiple times each term. This
is most effective if instructors can respond to these questions while the class
is still in session to ensure students that their feedback was heard.
Today’s Question
From the
National Survey: A Chief Academic Officer from a private college in the
Northeast asks: “Do you involve faculty
in the ongoing administration/supervision/oversight of your course evaluation
system?”
In
discussions with colleges, it is usually assumed that this IS going on: that
faculty are distributing and promoting, reminding students, and have some level
of control over the process. But is that
not the case at your institution? Aside
from the ubiquitous situation where a handful of instructors tune out and do
not participate, are your faculty fully involved, or does the evaluation
process occur outside of the classroom and outside of instructor
oversight? I have seen several
unfortunate scenarios where schools drive students to the school portal, where
they have to click through several layers to arrive at the evaluation
form. Faculty become removed from
the process, resulting in lower response rates and less meaningful student
comments.
Today’s Concern
From the
National Survey: A respondent writes (paraphrased): “Some
faculty give class-wide incentives to complete the online evaluation forms
(e.g., if 70% of students fill it out, all students get bonus class credit). Other faculty see this as a “bribe”. Our university policy is silent on this issue,
although I know other institutions forbid it...”
What do
you think of the practice of anonymously tracking student response rate and
then rewarding the class as a whole for levels of participation in the
evaluation process? Is this practice
welcomed or prohibited at your school? Share your answers this week.
